LAKERS vsGRIZZLIES (POST-GAME REPORT)

LAKERS 115 - GRIZZLIES 98

A fortunate win, but an unfortunate situation for the Lakers tonight. Andrew Bynum scored 7pts before going down mid-first quarter, after Kobe fell and crashed into his right knee while attempting a lay-up. All eyes were on Drew as he yelled through pain while clutching his knee. A look of disappointment and worry on every Laker face, especially Kobe who felt responsible for the injury. But as much as some can put blame on Kobe, you really can't. It was just an accident that no one saw coming. You can't blame Kobe anymore than you can blame Odom for what happened to Bynum last year.

As I was watching, it felt like deja vu as it was reminiscent of last years injury which involved Bynum awkwardly landing on Odom's foot. Luckily it isn't that bad... so far. X-rays were negative but it's still not conclusive on the injury. Good thing was, that Bynum admitted to it feeling better than last years injury" and is able to apply pressure to the affected leg.

After the timeout to take Bynum off the floor, the Lakers seemed disgruntled. As Stu described, they were playing in stunned mode. With the thought of an injured Bynum in the locker, it was obvious their minds were somewhere else while on the floor. But coming out of the first half down by 6pts, they came focused and held the Grizzlies to only 37pts in the second half. Kobe led all scorers with 25pts, 7asts, and 3stls. But in the absence of Bynum, Pau stepped up in a big way and added 24pts, 8rebs, and 4ast on 9 of 14 shooting. Fish had 14 while Lamar had 13 combining 11for 13 shooting.

The Gay-Mayo tandem was present tonight in which the Lakers failed to defend them a little better. Young Gasol and Conley both had 13 a piece, but it was their forwards who were the difference tonight with both Arthur and Warrick making big plays for them, both with 11pts. It was problems for the Lakers when the Grizzlies would push the ball down the court like they had done before. Coach Hollins pushed like he said they would, but the "hard-nosed defense"? Maybe one minute spurts of it, but I hardly saw anything "hard-nosed" about their defense. Hold a team to 37pts in a half, then we'll talk.

The Lakers collected themselves when they needed to and stepped up where there were holes. Question is, how long can they hold this off? We're probably in for last years starting line-up with the exception on Luke instead of Vlad. I'm sure Odom wouldn't mind starting. Look for Mihm and Powell to have more minutes and for Odom to come out with the double-doubles again. Up next, high scoring New York Knicks.